An Aztec Folio

Text 1: The Death of Quetzalcöätl
Tr. by DKJ

The Story: This is one variant of the story of a ruler named Quetzalcöätl (“Quetzal-bird Serpent,” usually rendered “Feathered Serpent”), believed by the Aztecs to have reigned over the extinct Toltec capital town of Tula several hundred years earlier. It was common for ancient Mexicans to be named after their birthdays, and Quetzalcöätl was also called Cë-Acatl, or “One Reed,” the name of the day of his birth. He is also referred to in the text as Topiltzin Quetzalcöätl (“Our Beloved Lord Quetzalcöätl”).

Inevitably he is easily confused with the god Quetzalcöätl, after whom he presumably was named, and it seems likely that most Aztecs suffered from the confusion.

Although we have no evidence to support such a view, it is provocative to imagine that Quetzalcöätl, the man, may also have suffered from this confusion, coming to believe himself an avatar or incarnation of the god whose name he bore. (If you wanted to make a compelling film, you could have him gradually slide into madness.)

The human Quetzalcöätl’s mother was named Chimalman, a name perhaps related to chïmalli “war shield.” He was born in the year numbered, like the day of his birth, One Reed (A.D. 843) as a result, it was later said, of Chimalman having swallowed a piece of jade.

The human Quetzalcöätl appears to have been much given to religious fasting (perhaps rather conspicuously), and he was selected (?) to be king and high priest of the Toltecs when a vacancy occurred on the throne in the year Five House (AD 873), when he would presumably have been thirty.

The present text describes his elegant dwelling of precious stones and colorful feathers, in which he carried out his devotions, protected from public contact by his servants. It tells us that he angered other “sorcerers” because he refused to sacrifice human beings, substituting snakes, birds, and even butterflies. As our passage begins, these “sorcerers,” fed up with him, conspire to mock and harass him until he runs away so they can select a new monarch.

The Source: The present account is included in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan (sections 5 to 8) and dates to about 1570. (The Anales and another manuscript called the Leyenda de los Soles, dated about 1558, occur in the same manuscript, known as the Codex Chimalpopoca.) The use of terms like “demon” and “sorcerer” almost certainly reflects the politically correct usages of the post-Conquest period.

Linguistic Note: The modernized spelling used here is based on Launey (1981: 192-203), and it is Launey’s numbering that is followed. Vowel length is here represented by a dieresis (umlaut) rather than a macron. In a few cases I have overruled Launey’s vowel length decisions. The English rendering is informed at many points by Launey’s French rendering, and retouched occasionally by reference to John Bierhorst’s scholarly treatment of the original text (Bierhorst 1992). I have tried to keep the English intelligibly close to the Nahuatl. Given the liberties I have taken with the text in adjusting it to the present need, I have unquestionably introduced distortions and mistakes.

Dramatis Personae

Quetzalcöätl [Feathered Serpent]

A pious king of Tollan (Tula), fond of performing religious austerities. (Later called Tlahuizcalpantëuctli, "Lord of the Dawn")

Quetzalpetlatl

His even more pious sister, at least as fond of performing religious austerities

One reed. That was the year (A.D. 895) when Quetzalcöätl died. It is said that he went to Tlïllän Tlapallän in order to die there. And afterwards at Tula there was enthroned, there became king someone named Mahtläcxöchitl (“ten flowers”).

He said to Quetzalcöätl, “My lord, I advise that you, to go out, so that your subjects can see you. Let me adorn you so that they can see you.” [Quetzalcöätl] said, “Do it so that I can see well, my friend.”

And when he had prepared it, when Quetzalcöätl had been arrayed in this way, he held up the mirror for him. And when he saw himself, he saw it was good. And after that [Quetzalcöätl] departed from the place where they had been guarding him.

And when he had eaten, they implored him once more, and they gave him the pulque. But he said to them, “I won’t drink any of it, for I am practicing abstention. It may be intoxicating, [which would be] perhaps fatal.”

So his servants went to the Hill of Nonohualco, where she was doing penance, and they said, “Noble lady Quetzalpetlatl, penitent, we have come to seek you; the priest Quetzalcöätl awaits you, that you may go and be by his side.”

She said, “Very well, let us go, dear servants.” And when she arrived, and was seated beside Quetzalcöätl. He gave her four servings to drink, and also a fifth, his “libation.”

[In deleted material, once Ihhuimecatl and Töltëcatl have made everyone drunk, they sing to Quetzalpetlatl, insinuatingly reminding her that she has not been seen lately (which is in fact because she was doing penance). ]

When they were drunk, the people no longer said, “We are doing penance!” And they no longer descended to the river. They did not pierce themselves with thorns. They did nothing till dawn.

49. Auh in ötlathuic, cencah tlaöcoxqueh; icnöyöhuac in ïnyölloh.

And when the day came, they were very sad; their hearts were full of sadness.

[In his sadness, Quetzalcöätl sings a chant of lamentation. The text is difficult to interpret with certainty, but the general flow of thought is that his house has become a place of regrets, and that he has not accomplished what he hoped for. He mentions his mother, the goddess of the serpent skirt, apparently implying that he has failed her as well.]

And so they made him, indeed, a stone chest and when they had made it, … they laid Quetzalcöätl down in it.

[He lay in the stone hamper for four days, and then ordered his servants to hide all of the objects associated with his reign, which they concealed at a place called Ätëcpanämöchco. Then he and his servants set out on foot across the landscape towards the sea.]

It was in the year called one-reed. It is said that when he arrived at the sea, on the shore of the ocean, he stopped, cried, arranged his belongings, and got dressed in his finery, his turquoise mask, etc.

And during the four days [there] he made darts, and at the end of eight days a great star appeared, which they called Quetzalcöätl, and they said that he established himself in his realm.

[Thereafter whenever Quetzalcöätl appeared as a star, he appeared, it was believed, on behalf of particular groups of people, depending on the day-sign of the calendar, striking them with his darts, whatever the implications of that may be.]